Page:Giuseppe Bianchini - The Work of the Fascist Government and the Economic Reconstruction of Italy - tr. Luigi Villari.pdf/20

 reduced to 93,163 millions, and on December 31 1924 to 91,988 millions. Here too we have not only no further increase of indebtedness, but a tendency towards an actual reduction.

In addition to the inter-Allied debts, amounting on December 31 1924 to 23,056 millions in gold, which constitute a suspended political operation, we had some foreign debts of a commercial character, i. e. debts owed by the State for supplies, foodstuffs, etc., and these debts must not be confused with the inter-Allied debts. On June 30 1922 they amounted to 278 millions in gold; they are now reduced to 51 millions, and will have been completely paid up by next Febraury.

The ruinous output of paper money, which is the cause of inflation and the chief, if not the only, cause of the depreciation of the currency, has been strictly containd, and as all further issues have completely ceased since 1922, fiduciary circulation, save for small oscillations due to commercial necessitis, has remained steady at about 20 milliards (to be accurate, on December 31 1922 it was 20,560 millions, and on December 20 1924 at 20,302 millions).